An effective process for translating contextual inquiry data into usable design concepts is described. A literature survey, field observations and laboratory simulations preceded contextual inquiry sessions with seven cashiers working in retail checkstands. Data from this field research was communicated with a graduate student design team during interpretation sessions. Diagrams and pictures from the physical workspace were introduced, work behaviors and breakdowns were discussed and design ideas and insights were recorded during these sessions. The final communication tool is a wall-sized affinity diagram created by members of the design team. The affinity diagram tells the story of peoples experiences working in retail front end work environments by incorporating patterns of cashiers behavior and concerns, while maintaining details of each participants comments. It translates the applied research from basic contextual inquiry data to a sustainable communication tool for contextual researchers, workspace designers and other project stakeholders. The design research method presented yields valuable qualitative results for physical workspace design that can be communicated to people who are not involved in data collection.

Abstract This study explores the entrepreneuring organization which presents itself as the organizer of value creation, how to create a sustained momentum in entrepreneuring along its developmental process. Based on the findings from previous study, the so-called entrepreneuring organization is the one which based on its distinguished position in the marketsset and conducted its own innovation and value creation activities. And what refers to entrepreneuring here is to differentiate it from conventional definition concerning entrepreneurship which mainly related to venture creation, it is more about the process where members in such organization conduct innovation and value creation activities. Two major issues are investgated: How sustained momentum in entrepreneuring is emerged along the developmental process; How members conduct innovation and value creation activities collectively. The purpose of this study is to conduct explorative exposition in understanding the process regarding how entrepreneuring organization functions. The narrative inquiry method and the perspective of collective entrepreneurship are applied in proceeding to this study. The ¡§Entrepreneuring process model¡¨ has been depicted from this study and has sorted out research findings as follows: 1). The entrepreneurial setting is merged from the process of cycleing construction:¡§emergion¡¨-¡§filtering and selection¡¨-¡§retaining¡¨, as organization develops. 2). The sustained momentum in entrepreneuring is coming from the interaction among members and entrepreneurial setting which tranfroms individual agency into collective synergy effectively. 3). Three steps are pointed out to transform individual agency into collective synergy: a. The process transforming into collective synergy is activated via the believing in competent individuals who can create entrepreneuring. b. The collective synergy is produced from effective harmonizing between the needs for individuals to proceed to their own development and for organization to function as intergral whole. C. Aggregating individuals as a whole via interplay between calculative and social commitments.

With rapid development of information technologies, especially the Internet technology, people can communicate more flexibly via various media, in which knowledge can be also shared. In gaining knowledge through the Internet, either digital content retrieval or inter-personal interaction, learning activities conducted on the Web are getting popular. This research has two main objectives. One is to develop incentive mechanisms to enhance the quantity and quality of information shared through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. The other objective is to implement and evaluate the proposed mechanisms for inquiry-based learning on P2P networks. The pricing-like incentive mechanism is embedded on each peer to determine the price to share a document, to issue a question, and respond to a question. Through experiments, this study evaluates the effects on mitigating the free-riding problems and exchanging information through the P2P network. The results show the effectiveness of the incentive mechanisms for inquiry-based learning on P2P networks.

Online and Blended learning are becoming widespread along with the changing needs of society and advances in technology. Recently, there is a growing emphasis on building learning communities in order to increase the effectiveness of these learning environments. In recent years there is one promising theory that has generated considerable interest and has been widely adopted and studied by researchers: the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000). The CoI framework, with its emphasis on critical thinking and collaboration, provides a well-structured model and set of guidelines to create effective learning communities in online and blended learning environments. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of a CoI in online and blended learning contexts in relation to students&amp / #8217 / perceived learning and satisfaction. A graduate course delivered online and blended format was the focus of the study. The data was collected through transcript analysis of online discussion, the CoI Survey, and interviews to examine social, teaching, cognitive presence postings patterns, to explore students&amp / #8217 / perceptions of each presence, learning and satisfaction, and to compare the differences between online and blended learning environments. Overall, all three sources of data indicated that a CoI developed in both courses. However, the study found developmental differences in the CoI presences regarding the course format. In terms of social presence, two categories &amp / #8211 / affective communication and group cohesion &amp / #8211 / were found different. Another difference between the two course formats was on the cognitive presence categories. Overall, the transcript analysis in this study found that integration was the most frequently coded phase in both courses. However, the integration phase was found to be significantly higher in the blended course compared to the online course. Finally, the survey analysis yielded higher perceptions of each presence in both courses. However, the students in the blended course had slightly higher perceptions of each presence. The only significant difference was found on teaching presence. The study also yielded some significant relationships among presences which varied according to the course.

The purpose of this study is to explore pre-service science teachers&rsquo / (PST) argumentation in the context of inquiry-oriented laboratory work. Specifically, this study investigated the kinds of argumentation schemes PSTs use as they perform inquiry-oriented laboratory tasks, and how argumentation schemes generated by PSTs vary by tasks as well as by experimentation and critical discussion sessions. The participants in this study were 35 pre-service elementary teachers, who will teach middle school science from 6th through 8th grade students after graduation. In this study, participants were engaged in six inquiry-oriented laboratory tasks. The performance of laboratory tasks consisted of two stages. Through the experimentation stage, PSTs planned and developed their own hypotheses, carried out an experiment and collected data, and processed their data to verify their hypotheses. Through the critical discussion stage, one of the research groups presented their hypotheses, methods, and results orally to the other research groups. Each presentation was followed by a class discussion of weak and strong aspects of the experimentation. The data of this study were collected through video- and audio-recording. The data were the transcribed from video- and audio-recordings of the PSTs&rsquo / discourse during the performance of the laboratory tasks. For the analysis of PSTs&rsquo / discourse pre-determined argumentation schemes by Walton (1996) were employed. The results illustrated that PSTs applied varied premises rather than only observations or reliable sources, to ground their claims or to argue for a case or an action. The interpretation of the frequency data and the kind of the most frequent argumentation schemes can be seen as a positive indication that the inquiry-oriented laboratory tasks that were employed in this study are effective toward promoting presumptive reasoning discourse. Another result of this study, which is worthy of notice is the construction and evaluation of scientific knowledge claims that resulted in different number and kinds of arguments. Results of this study suggest the following implications for improving science education. First, designing inquiry-oriented laboratory environments, which are enriched with critical discussion, provides discourse opportunities that can support argumentation. Second, both the number of arguments and the use of various scientific argumentation schemes can be enhanced by specific task structures. Third, &ldquo / argumentation schemes for presumptive reasoning&rdquo / is a promising analysis framework to reveal the argumentation patterns in scientific settings. Last, pre-service teachers can be encouraged to support and promote argumentation in their future science classrooms if they engage in argumentation integrated instructional strategies.

Based on the importance of implementing effective environmental education has been asserted to a sustainable solution to the environmental problems, this study aimed to (1) investigate the pre-service science teachers&rsquo / processes of construction of explanations regarding environmental problems, and (2) provide an environment for researchers to understand the dispositions of participants in terms of how using environmental explanations for answering the questions. The research has been realized within the context of an elective course titled &ldquo / Laboratory applications in environmental education&rdquo / in the Department of Elementary Education throughout 2008-2009 Spring semesters. The 21 pre-service science teachers attended the course and participated the environmental learning activities including five different environmental problems / biological diversity, surface waters, drinking water, waste water and air pollution with in a small group. Field trip activities, group discussions and whole class discussions were conducted through the course. Data were collected through audio and video recorders from one small group and through pre, post-tests. Analyses of data revealed that pre-service science teachers could not aware of the complex and multidisciplinary nature of environmental knowledge, so they mostly interpreted environmental problems through the everyday knowledge that they derived from everyday experiences. Through peer collaboration in fields and student-facilitator collaboration in discussions weeks, the pre-service science teachers have a chance to analyze different perspectives and ideologies about the causes and solutions of environmental problems. The pre-tests and post-test results revealed that in the field-based collaborative inquiry activities the participants&rsquo / nature of explanations shifted from descriptive to formal and scientific explanations.

The aim of this study is to investigate undergraduate students&rsquo / scientific inquiry processes in a physics laboratory designed using problem-based learning. Case study, one of the qualitative research methods, was employed for this aim. Sixteen undergraduate students were participated in this study. Participants conducted inquiry activities for five weeks. The data sources were the observations of participants while they were doing inquiry activities and the laboratory work sheets filled by the participants. A framework suggested by Klahr and Dunbar (1988) in Scientific Discovery as Dual Search model was used to gain better understanding of scientific inquiry process. In this framework, inquiry process consist of three phases / hypothesis formation, designing and conducting experiments, and evidence evaluation. The variations on the participants&rsquo / scientific inquiry processes were analyzed and categorized for each phase of inquiry. Participants&rsquo / hypothesis formation processes were categorized based on the nature of sources used by the participants and how these sources were used. The emerging categories were labeled as &ldquo / concept-based hypothesis formation&rdquo / , &ldquo / equation-based hypothesis formation&rdquo / , and &ldquo / context-based hypothesis formation&rdquo / . Participants&rsquo / designing and conducting experiment processes were categorized into two types: &ldquo / Systematic manipulations&rdquo / and &ldquo / unsystematic manipulations&rdquo / . &ldquo / Haphazard manipulation of variables&rdquo / and &ldquo / using two manipulated variable simultaneously&rdquo / were the two different types of observed unsystematic manipulations. Lastly, participants&rsquo / evidence evaluation processes were categorized based on the driving sources: &ldquo / Data-driven evidence evaluation&rdquo / and &ldquo / prior knowledge-driven evidence evaluation&rdquo / . Detailed descriptions of these categories were presented with examples.

Walden's Paths, created by the Center for the Study of Digital Libraries, provides a mechanism for leveraging student learning with the incredible amount of educational material on the web by organizing selected web pages into a structured learning activity. Applying specialized templates to the creation of Walden's Paths can aid a path author in creating pedagogically sound, Web-based activities, by assisting in the collection of information and organization of the activity. Authoring templates may be based on established educational frameworks, learning theories or specific activity type. This research project investigates how using pedagogically based templates affects the authoring process for paths created using Walden's Paths. A template based on the educational framework Inquiry-Based Learning was created and tested by a group of users to determine what effects the template has on creating paths as compared to creating similar paths using the existing Walden's Paths interface.

<p>Ansatsen; Deltagande design inom MDI förespråkar att användare är med under hela designprocessen, även under det tidigaste skedet, före det har skissats på någon prototyp över huvudtaget. Medverkan innebär då att användarna får klargöra sina behov, åsikter och önskemål om en produkt. En speciell deltagarteknik har utvecklats för att göra detta möjligt och heter Contextual inquiry. I detta arbete har tekniken tillämpats på hyresgäster inom Skövdebostäder och har gällt produkten elektronisk anslagstavla. Hypotesen har varit att inställningen till en produkt är mer positiv när användare har deltagit i det tidigaste stadiet i designprocessen och skulle då förklaras med hjälp av ett psykologiskt "fenomen" som kallas Hawthorne-effekten. Resultatet från studien kunde inte ge stöd för hypotesen, det fanns med andra ord ingen signifikant skillnad mellan experimentgrupp och kontrollgrupp.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1930. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 255-256.